What You Wish You Knew Sooner in Your Educational Career: Chunking!

By Sara Coyne

Have you ever wondered why different things you remember are associated with sometimes very random topics and thoughts? For example, picture yourself thinking about summertime. What comes to mind? Your brain probably associates memories with the word summertime and your brain may be flooded with all kinds of memories which were made in the summer. When I think about the word summertime my thoughts become flooded with the different national parks that I’ve been to. I like to travel a lot in the summertime. So, the words national parks make me think of Glacier National Park where I went in the summer of 2018.

Thinking about that makes me think about how I did a hike by myself in Glacier National Park because my boyfriend sprained his ankle rock climbing. Then from thinking about rock climbing I come to the realization that I want to go rock climbing. But then I remember that currently because of COVID-19 and social distancing that is in effect I can’t……….so that’s how the spiral of chunking works.

You’re probably wondering why I randomly babbled on about summertime and everything I associate with summertime. The reason my brain associated all of these memories with summertime is because our brains store things in what are known as chunks. The term chunking in human memory is known as grouping similar ideas together. This is why sometimes when we think of words other memories may come flooding back and we fall into the rabbit hole of remembering certain things that are associated with others. Sometimes these things may not always be pleasant. For example, I’m sure if you thought of the word “sick” you’d associate some unpleasant memories that are chunked together with the word “sick” because of times you were sick and thinking of being sick brings you back to the last time you were laying on your couch hoping your nausea would go away.

Chunking is an amazing thing that our brain does with our memories and knowledge in general. Chunking doesn’t only work for remembering past memories. Appropriately chunking can help you in numerous ways. For example, when you need to remember some important details for a test, you can create links in your brain associated with that topic just based upon a few words or concepts. Or if you don’t have any tests any longer because you’re not a student, but need to remember particular information for work, chunking can also be used to remember important client’s names and faces, for example. In order to remember these things, we must associate and create links in order to keep information together and stored properly.

There are two forms of chunking. The first is deliberate chunking, which is when you’re using it under strategic control. The second is goal-oriented chunking which is automatic, continuous, and linked to perceptual processes (Gobet et al., 2001). The deliberate method is what is most useful in learning things, like the knowledge you need to know for an exam. If you can learn how to chunk information for an exam strategically, this could be something you’d find useful in the rest of your educational life!

Do you want to learn more about chunking and how it can help you in your daily life or when you’re prepping for an exam? Below are some websites in which you can find more info. There are also some awesome YouTube videos to check out. All of these resources can help you get better at chunking. These can even help with keeping your important memories strong. Like I’ve learned in my Human Memory class, recall is needed for creating strong memories. So, the more you think about it the better you’ll create those “solid” links to your memories, and the better you’ll be able to retrieve this information.